Reimagining Land

I hope you took a few minutes last week to think about what you love (and don’t love) about your place. There will always be some tension between the two. We can always move toward making our place better. This week, let’s move into the reimagination phase with regard to our place, beginning with the land itself. 

We’ve already touched on the quality of soil and the possibilities of regenerative agriculture in a previous post. In her book, Braiding Sweetgrass, Robin Wall Kimmerer says that the basis, the foundation, of place culture is land. 

To the indigenous people of North America, of whom she is a descendant, land is the source of their identity, a connection to ancestors, home to nonhuman species, a source for medicine and knowledge. They feel a responsibility to the land, which they consider sacred. 

Settlers, however, have a different mentality, thinking of land as “property, real estate, capital, or natural resources.” In other words, it’s a commodity, something that provides value to the owner and, hopefully, increases in value. There is an extractive quality to this view which has caused major problems - the depletion of soil and unaffordability, to name two. Kimmerer describes multiple ways of thinking about land. 

• Land as capital; a way to make money.

• Land as private property; with a human owner who can do what they want with it.

• Land as a machine; where humans establish its structure and purpose.

• Land as a teacher and healer; a renewable source of knowledge and ecological insight.

• Land as responsibility; or as restoration of relationship.

Which one (or more) resonated with you most? No judgment here. Land can be all of these things but we tend to give priority to certain ideas over others. This may come from what we’ve been taught and/or what the culture shows us. 

In My Place

When I look at how land has been used in my place and how it’s changed over time, a few things come to mind. Mostly, land is considered as private property and a source of wealth. A former church is now a brewery. A former school now houses a church group and other not-for-profit groups. There are public lands in the form of parks and conservation lands. Much of the land here is zoned for agricultural use, and some operations are regenerative, while others are not. 

One initiative here in Ontario, which dates from 2005, is that there is a designated Greenbelt, which includes the place where I live. Its mission is to protect productive farmland and sensitive areas, like rivers, wetlands, forests, rivers, and lakes; to restrict urban sprawl and maintain natural heritage. A positive byproduct of this policy is that it’s a way of mitigating climate change and creating resilient communities. Greenbelt areas absorb rainwater, manage stormwater, and help prevent flooding. The tree cover and vegetation help keep temperatures down and absorb carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

Still, there is constant tension over urban development, which always seems to take priority over the needs of wildlife. Forest cover has decreased dramatically and wildlife habitats have been chopped up. 

For me personally, I’ve purchased land as private property, with the hope that it would increase in value. Sometimes it has and sometimes it hasn’t. I do feel a sense of responsibility to care for the land, to plant native trees and a garden. I’ve also come to see the land as a teacher and healer over the years. Over the course of the pandemic, I’ve become much more attuned to the needs of the other inhabitants who share my place. 

Practice

"If land is just real estate, then restoration looks very different than if land is the source of a subsistence economy and a spiritual home. Restoring land for production of natural resources is not the same as renewal of land as cultural identity. We have to think about what land means." ~ Braiding Sweetgrass

Here are some questions and readings for you to consider this week.

What does land mean to you? 

How are the different ideas about land enacted in your place currently? 

How has urban development in your place affected affordability and wildlife?

How could land be reimagined where you live? What step can you take in that direction today?

Resources 

“Our system of property only really allows for two ways of occupying our homes: renting or owning. Community land trusts provide a third way.” ~ Land Power by Cassim Shepard via Places Journal. This is an interesting article on community land trusts, an idea that is taking off in many places around the world.

Rethinking Land for the 21st Century via Mongabay